I recently sat down with health tech pioneer Halle Tecco (founder of Rock Health, Natalist, and Co-Fertility) for a raw, funny, and deeply insightful conversation about healthcare, investing, and writing the book she wished existed when she started her journey.
Disclaimer: I was frazzled. The reason WHY I was frazzled honestly deserves its own post. You’ll hear hints of it involving my kids, sleep away camp, and a lice scare. As a result, I had 3 minutes to get online and did not realize my camera was off center 😬
Regardless, I would venture to say that this was a very, very fun fireside chat. Here are my fave hot takes. Give it a listen for a lot more substance (and some real time, caught-on-camera work-life “balance” 😅).
1. Why healthcare is broken (and how to fix it)
Halle pulled back the curtain on the root cause of U.S. healthcare’s biggest problems: intermediaries. They obscure the true cost and price of care, have a short-term focus that is in conflict with long-term investments, and their profit-maximizing incentives are misaligned with health outcomes. The result are funky distortions to supply and demand. Health plans actually benefit when healthcare costs rise! Halle talked for a good 10 minutes about all the ways this is, well, FUBAR. But, she’s hopeful: the more we align incentives between financial outcomes and patient health, the more we can fix. Her go-to example these days is Omada Health, a Rock Health investment that IPO’ed last quarter. Their model is such that the company only gets paid when patients’ health improves.
2. Why Halle stopped angel investing
Halle has been vocal about pulling back from angel investing. And on the chat, she didn’t hold back on why she stopped: angel investors take on the most risk, with the least protection. In a funding climate shaped by predatory late-stage investors and recapitalizations, early backers often lose everything, even when companies succeed. After multiple bad experiences in the recent VC pullback, Halle had enough. She has since decided there are many better ways to support founders than writing angel checks, and is focusing her time accordingly.
3. Why women’s health is (still) a massive opportunity
Despite progress, women’s health remains underfunded and underserved. Halle highlighted a new wave of success stories like Maven Clinic, Tia, Midi Health and Kindbody. At the risk of stating the obvious, women make up more than half the world’s population, so the massive opportunity isn’t just more “women’s health companies”. Rather, it’s for ALL health players to take female health seriously. After our conversation, I listened to the new season of “The Retrievals” podcast—a timely reminder of just how far we have to go on women’s health.
From lice emergencies and bedtime tears to systemic failures and venture returns, this was one of the most honest conversations I’ve had on the intersection of impact, innovation, and capitalism. I can’t wait to read Halle’s book when it drops this winter—and host that book launch party I promised Halle!
PS. I’m really enjoying these Substack Lives. Who should I talk to next?
What’s on my browser this week.
I spent an hour on PopMart yesterday and scored FOUR LABUBUS from their product drop! For the kiddos, of course 😉. Oof, it’s like the hunger games in there. I feel like I deserve a medal.
Google’s eye-popping $2.4B acquihire is all over my feeds. If reporting holds true, most Windsurf employees got screwed. It looks like straight up mercenaryism and breaks the social contract we make with early employees… not a great look.
As an international ivy-league student who got a full scholarship… I have a lot of thoughts.
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